Home visits are not familiar to everyone, but many health care professionals know they are a valuable part of targeted care for the most vulnerable populations.

Home visiting services reach hundreds of thousands of households each year¹, and in 2020, through the Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV), provided life-changing support to 140,000 parents and children across the U.S.².

But the federal funding for these programs is set to expire this fall if Congress doesn't take action to reauthorize it³.

All families experience periods of stress. Many struggle with poverty, and those families often need the MIECHV program's help most.

Through these programs, trained social workers, nurses, and early childhood educators and other professionals come to families' homes to provide education, support, and connection to community-based resources in a profound way⁴.

Home visiting programs impact maternal mortality and morbidity by creating connections between mothers and health practitioners in the community, breaking down barriers to care and strengthening the link between healthcare resources and the families who need them, among other benefits⁵.

With every visit, these knowledgeable, empathetic home visitors connect families to resources that can stabilize their situation and provide strategies to help lay the groundwork for families to thrive⁶.

Home visitors can help new mothers practice effective disciplinary strategies, continue their education, get job training or find meaningful employment⁷.

Studies from Harvard⁸ and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus⁹ further show that home visits lead to improvements in physical, emotional, and economic health. Patients who receive home visits are healthier and happier than they would have been without these critical services.

A large part of infant and early childhood health promotion happens in a child's community¹⁰. Home visiting services are a critical resource for hundreds of thousands, and in thee age of global pandemic, the need for the MIECHV has never been greater.

Sign and help us ask the federal government to continue to fund the MIECHV program and help vulnerable Americans in need!

More on this issue:

1. National Home Visiting Resource Center (2019), "Who Is Being Served?"
2. HRSE Maternal Child and Health, "Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program."
3. Start Early (2022), "What is MIECHV?"
4. National Conference of State Legislatures (25 March 2022), "Home Visiting: Improving Outcomes for Children."
5. Home Visiting Coalition (2020), "What is Home Visiting?"
6. Congressional Research Service (21 November 2018), "Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program: Background and Funding."
7. Nell Warner, The British Journal of Social Work (23 October 2020), "Improvements in Parental Emotional Well-Being During Home Visiting Support: What Works for Whom?"
8. Harvard University (2010), "The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood."
9. Nancy Donelan-McCall, PhD, David Olds, PhD, Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development "Prenatal/Postnatal Home Visiting Programs and Their Impact on Children’s Social and Emotional Development."
10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (23 May 2022), "Promoting Health for Children and Adolescents."